From Dwelling Communities To Historic Urban Landscape:the Interpretation Of The Neighborhood Culture In Shuitingmen

Shuitingmen Neighborhood is located in Quzhou city. As a traditional settlement, this place has gone through changes either tangibly or intangibly. In current times, this community is preserved as a heritage place, where the material fabrics left by the lineages, the native-place associations and the merchant immigrant families, baojia (保甲, tithing) system and juweihui (居委会, residents committee) form the urban landscape. This dissertation explores the neighborhood culture of Shuitingmen, interpreting the cultural process how it was transformed from a traditional dwelling to become current heritage site.What is the community as heritage, or how is the past community turned into the current heritage place? What is the intangible neighborhood culture? With these two research questions, this study attempts to interpret from cultural perspective how Shuitingmen is transformed from communities into the current place of heritage. Using the historiographic and ethnographic fieldwork, a lot of data are collected, including the historical records, official archives, private writings, local records, etc. as well as the oral memories of the local residents. The Foucault’s genealogy study and the interpretive approach of landscape study give view of how the cultural meanings were transformed from a traditional neighborhood guided by Confucian ritual in the form of lineages(宗族), to the native-place associations（同乡组织), from the baojia system during the republican China to the residents committee since the foundation of the Communist China.This study states that the neighborhood cultures are dynamic with the changes of the socio-cultural contexts. Also, there is possibility for traditional Chinese neighborhood culture integrated into the current community in modern society. As a heritage site, today’s Shuitingmen is the materialized landscape formed by different forms of communities in different times. Thus as the historic urban landscape the architectures within could not be limited in certain times or styles. Instead, the heritage within should be protected in diversity.This study is inter-disciplinary research which combines the cognate field of historiography, sociology, anthropology, heritage studies, attempting to construct an in-depth understanding of the neighborhood culture by interpreting ways of governance.This study will challenge the recognition of authenticity in cultural heritage in reviewing the indigenous meanings of neighborhood culture as heritage which will shed light on the current heritage management, community development and governance.